Tales of a Traveling Teacher

After a full day at the zoo, dinner and an energetic disco, we were all shattered. However, we couldn't miss out on our last night of games! I've thoroughly enjoyed seeing the kids outside of school and watching them interact with one another, but one of the things I've enjoyed the most is getting to know my fellow colleagues even better.  Each night, after the kids have quieted down, we've gone downstairs and made loads of noise. The first game we played was Spoons, that lively game that takes so much skill! It was a favorite of mine for a long while, but I haven't played it since being on a mission trip in Panama a few years ago. Tuesday and Wednesday nights, I introduced them to some of my favorite group games: Taboo and Apples to Apples. We rounded out the week tonight with the new favorite: Taboo. We stayed up far too late and were surely much too loud as we laughed until we cried. We were able to use shared experiences to prompt on our teammates and make conne...

After a great educational morning at an old mining community, we spent our afternoon playing. We did tobogganing and tubing down steep hills; it was lush! The weather cooperated beautifully so that it was sunny and warm, and the kids were truly lovely! They loved watching each other speed down the hill, they cheered each other on and they went down the hills together in groups. I was honored to be included in some of these groups, especially when a group of my "too cool for school" boys asked me to join their group. We had a really great time watching the kids laugh, cheer and interact with one another. After dinner, we had a competitive game of BINGO where I filled up my card, winning a funky highlighter for the Full House. I was so excited! I hadn't played BINGO for years, in fact, I don't remember playing since I used to play with my grandparents at the country club. Obviously it's a skill I've hung on to!;) It was truly a wonderful day!

It was just your typical Tuesday. I woke up a little before my 6:30 alarm clock, climbed down the bunk ladder, showered and got ready. Just your typical morning routine. Then, it was knocking on doors, waking up 9-and-10-year-old girls, helping to sort breakfast for 66 children, distribute pocket money, pack lunches then a brief walk to a discovery park called Conkers. It was, again, just a typical day where we built shelters, fires and scooters. A usual day of sliding down slides so dark you're not sure which end is up, learning facts about the forest, and playing on a playground. After that, a lady brought her birds of prey to meet us, and as usual, a falcon flew to me, landed on my arm and ate the raw chicken from my hand. Dinner, as typical was a three course meal that I neither had to prepare nor clean up. It was that typical day where when given the choice of crafts or sport, as many boys chose to make God's eyes as girls. Comforting a few homesick babes and knocking on d...

Today, as the start of our week-long adventure with the year 5s, we took the kids to Warwick Castle. Warwick (don't pronounce the second w) Castle is a wonderful, old castle where you can still walk around the walls, climb into the dungeon and see what some of the state rooms would have looked like. It is a beautiful castle, and also very touristy which was perfect for the kids! They climbed steep spiral steps, saw wax figures "performing" daily tasks, watched a falconry show, played on a playground and loaded up on more sweets than anyone should ever consume! It was a great, first full day of our trip!

This evening, I was packing for the year 5 residential trip and decided I needed my bigger suitcase, one that I haven't used since August.  After a little bit of struggle, I was able to pull down the two larger suitcases from the top of the wardrobe.  The one I wanted, being a wee bit smaller than the other was tucked inside the larger one.  So, after pulling it out, I opened the suitcase to find a note taped to the inside from my father. In January, the day my parents left, they stayed in the flat for about two hours before their car arrived while I was to school.  They used this time to leave behind little notes for me to find.  Many of which were found in the first couple of weeks, but some of them I found just a month or so ago.  My dad was very sneaky to hide this note in a suitcase which was inside another suitcase on top of my wardrobe.  He knew it would stretch out the findings of these wonderful little notes, reminders of just how lucky...

This morning, I walked down to St. George's Market, a place bustling early on a Sunday morning with shoppers and vendors. The market has been here for years as indicated by the lovely little statue out front of Alec the Goose "a former patron of St George's Market" from the 1920s. Having raised geese in the past, I know what affectionate creatures they can be (along with being loud and messy); I can only imagine seeing him wander through the stalls that were selling freshly baked breads, flowers, eggs and who knows, possibly a butcher selling some of Alec's family members! What a lovely image to think of this wee goose wandering about making friends with the vendors and surprising the customers. Today, there were about 50 stalls in this covered market square selling a wide variety of items from cupcakes to knitted hats to vintage tea cups to smoothies to homemade jams. I made several purchase: gifts for a few people and a couple of bits for myse...

Today, the gang woke up early, rented a car and then headed north. We squeezed a whole lot of truly incredible things into the day, enjoying the beautiful coast and the bursts of sunshine in between rain showers. We started off at Carrick-a-Rede, a beautiful little island with great views of the coast. The fun part of it was to get to the island, you got to cross a rope bridge! The Giant's Causeway was our next destination, and although I had seen it before, I was eager to see these unique hexagonal shape rocks again. We had a blast climbing up hills of these stone columns and posing for photos.  The rocks seem so unreal; their shapes are so different from anything else I've seen. After some food, we moved on to get a glimpse of Dunluce Castle, a castle in a beautiful setting a top of cliff just over the ocean water. It was mainly in ruins, but the stone walls are still greatly in tact. As it was raining, we only looked on from afar rather than explore the castle. As it was in ...